Crash course: Inside the "Sarah Lawrence cult"

[View this email in your browser]( Your daily update from [Salon](. Inside the "Sarah Lawrence cult" Nearly a decade after Daniel Barban Levin inadvertently joined what he calls a cult while in college, he's now sharing his experiences about how easily he was manipulated and eventually abused. He wasn't alone. "Nobody joins a cult. They join a group of friends or they join a self-help group or whatever it is," Levin said in an interview with Salon. "But nobody says, 'Oh, this is a cult, and I can't wait to get involved.'" Instead, in his new memoir "Slonim Woods 9," Levin outlines how his friend Talia Ray had drawn him and others into the orbit of her father, Larry Ray. Just released from prison, the older man somehow convinced the college students to not just live with him, but to entrust him with their lives, their minds and bodies. While Larry Ray has been indicted and is still awaiting trial, Levin wants to turn the focus away from the man. So often interest turns to the cult leader, almost giving them an extra level of power and attention in the process. In order to heal, Levin felt he couldn't try to get inside that man's mind. "If you spend your energy trying to figure out who your abuser is or if they're a good person, you're not leaving. The thing on the other side of the scale that outweighs everything is, he was the person who was hurting me and I didn't deserve that." Read the [full interview here](. Photo: Stephanie Keith; Salon/Getty/Penguin Random House "Impeachment" doesn't acquit itself well The latest season of Ryan Murphy's "American Crime Story" anthology series delves into the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal that rocked the nation. For the most part, it attempts to do right by the women involved and maligned during the entire affair, including Monica Lewinsky, who's also a producer on the project. Beanie Feldstein ("Booksmart") stars as Lewsinky, doing a creditable job humanizing the intern, especially in the face of her treatment by federal agents and lawyer Kenneth Starr. This is a credit to both the actress and Lewinsky herself who has become outspoken about how shame was wielded against her. The series delivers much of what one expects from a Ryan Murphy project: Sarah Paulson hamming it up and deliciously melodramatic lines. But it also deals heavily in prosthetics – namely latex noses and jowls. A few wigs are thrown in for good measure. As if that weren't distracting enough, the overall narrative is muddled in what it's trying to say . . . Read [TV critic Melanie McFarland's full review here](. Photo: Tina Thorpe/FX - Norman Solomon on what the media won't say: ["The American people live in a warfare state"]( - The pathetic plight of [TV's catfished women]( - [Abortion bounty hunters]( Texas aren't “whistleblowers” — they’re vicious vigilantes - Anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers now present a [real threat of violence]( - And finally ... was the [cheeseburger actually invented in Louisville, Kentucky]( Not a subscriber yet? [Sign up]( to receive Crash Course. The Satanists are right Amanda Marcotte writes how epic trollers, the non-secular Satanic Temple of Salem, Massachusetts (which no, does not actually worship Satan), entered the abortion fray to get all up in the craw of the right. By declaring abortion a "sacred ritual," the group concluded that Texas' abortion ban was a major imposition on their free expression of religion. In predictable fashion, Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw was triggered and moved to tweet his outrage. As was foretold by the Wicked One. "But this move by the Satanic Temple serves a higher purpose than trolling forced-birth advocates like Crenshaw. The Satanists are highlighting an issue that often gets lost in the debate over reproductive rights: The anti-choice movement is just one part of a larger effort by Christian fundamentalists to covertly turn the U.S. into a more theocratic state." Read the rest of [the indictment of anti-choice politics](. Photo: Getty/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds - ["'What is this if not magic?' The Italian man living as a hobbit,"]( Guardian - ["Sweetgreen CEO Shared COVID Meme About Banning Porn and Junk Food on Slack,"]( Vice - ["Wall Street Can’t Get Enough Fixer-Upper Houses,"]( Street Journal (paywall) - ["How ancient farmers throttled their immune systems to survive,"]( Science - ["The Best Birthday Present in 2021? A Covid Vaccine,"]( The NYTimes - ["I was institutionalized as a teen, and Wario was my only friend,"]( Polygon Labor Day: The end of COVID unemployment While some celebrated a day off work, tens of millions of households were thrown into uncertainty after their federal unemployment benefits expired on Labor Day. An estimated 35 million people – those receiving benefits and their family members – could be affected by Monday's cuts, which has received no pushback by the Biden administration. Ending the unemployment benefits was part of its economic recovery plan that would prompt a wave of hiring. That hasn't happened. Instead, [everyone is pointing at everyone else to step up]( and consumer spending is expected to take a hit at least initially. Meanwhile, the pandemic rages on . . . Photo: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images Have a tip for Salon? Feedback on this newsletter? [Let us know](mailto:brett.bachman@salon.com). 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